


(his) perfect crime

by dcuros



Series: ShuAke Confidant Week 2k18 [4]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Bad Ending, Dissociation, Dissociative Fugues, M/M, Temporary Amnesia, akiren is only mentioned here but i'm tagging him anyway, shuake is only implied
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-04 01:11:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16336874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dcuros/pseuds/dcuros
Summary: Day 7 - Conclusions / Betrayal / Justice?He remembers the Thieves, and his duty to pursue them as a detective.He remembers joining them, and making a plan to rescue their leader.He remembers a heist, and then an arrest.And then Goro remembers nothing.





	(his) perfect crime

His phone is ringing, he realizes distantly. Like a faraway siren, alarming but ultimately none of his concern. It wails and wails until everything is silent once more.

Fog slowly recedes from his head. He’s sitting on a park bench, he notes, and with how the cold coils around his bones, even with the thick hoodie he’s sure he doesn’t own but finds himself in, he deduces that he’s been sitting here a while.

The park is devoid of other people, likely to avoid the freezing morning air. He checks his phone and confirms the early hour alongside a flood of emails in his inbox that he decides to trudge through later. Strangely, his phone log shows no missed calls, making him wonder if he imagined the call from earlier. Even stranger still is the date he sees on the screen.

It’s November 21.

He backtracks through his thoughts and tries to salvage as much as he can from the haze that clouds his head and chokes off the panic he should be feeling. He picks through and scrutinizes every memory he can find.

He remembers the Thieves, and his duty to pursue them as a detective.

He remembers joining them, and making a plan to rescue their leader.

He remembers a heist, and then an arrest.

And then Goro remembers nothing.

He opens the news app on his phone, tries to gather his bearings the way he knows best: information. But the top headline rattles him even more, like it shakes something loose in his head.

‘Phantom Thieves Leader Commits Suicide in Police Custody’ _,_ the headline announces. He taps at the article in disbelief and reads. The leader of the Phantom Thieves, the article says, _Akira_ , the article doesn’t mention, had stolen a gun and killed a guard. He then _shot himself_ in the _dark interrogation room. He crumpled on top of the desk while his blood crept over the edges until they met the syringes scattered all over the floor_. The police refused to provide any further details on the incident.

He raises a hand to his mouth, presses in firmly, and breathes until the spots in his vision disappear. God, he’s cold and sticky and tired and _weak_. He feels so many things, can’t focus on any one that he can’t feel anything at all. And so he gets up and he goes back to his apartment.

 

* * *

Goro would have been home sooner if he had taken the bus, and he would have taken the bus if his wallet hadn’t also run off with his memories.

Central Street is bustling by the time he walks there. His feet are aching but he finds himself wandering down the familiar street anyway, pulling his hood even lower down his face to avoid unwanted attention.

He peers through the glass of the 777 as he passes and he freezes when he sees a mop of black curls behind the counter. He blinks and the familiar black curls fade into a stranger’s short-cropped brown.

He shakes his head and forges onward. He quickly looks away from the Big Bang Burger. The flashy lights that decorate their frontstore twists his gut into nausea, probably in remembrance of the times Akira dragged him in to take the Challenge with him.

He considers grabbing a coffee and resting his feet at the diner but a quick pat down reminds him of the state of his nonexistent wallet. He considers walking to Leblanc, to relax and pass the time and reorient himself. He considers going there to dupe a coffee from Akira in exchange for a game. He considers walking through those cafe doors to see welcoming grey eyes. But he walks to his apartment and doesn’t think of home.

(Akira’s ghost haunts him now, but Goro is certain he won’t see him in Leblanc. Or at the station. Or at the beef bowl place, or the florist, or even across a TV studio.

Goro shouldn’t see him anywhere at all.)

 

* * *

His apartment block is quiet in the late afternoon. He climbs to the third floor, twists the handle to his apartment door and finds it mercifully unlocked.

His phone rings as soon as the door clicks shut. He checks the screen and sees an unknown number.

“So,” growls the voice on the other side when he picks up. “you think you can run away from me, huh?”

“I beg your pardon?” Goro asks, confused at the hostility in the man’s tone. He walks further inside and settles onto his couch. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Cut the schoolboy act. I warned you not to cross me and then you disappear on me for days. Did you think of running off to your little thief friends?” The man’s tone shifts from angry to predatory.  “I didn’t think you’d be stupid enough to show your face again.”

“I won’t be needing your services anymore.” Goro opens his mouth to ask, but only a strangled sound manages to escape from his throat. The caller continues anyway.

“But before I forget, good job at the police station.”

Goro stiffens as the line goes dead. He drops his phone and frantically presses hands over his mouth, over his eyes as spots appear in his vision once again. Bile stews in his guts and leaves a horrible taste in his mouth. His head feels raw, the last of the fog on which his mind indifferently floated on disappears and drops him back to himself and into an interrogation room.  

_“I’m sorry I’m late. I’m here to save you.” He hears himself announce as he points a gun at the bewildered guard._

There are footsteps approaching him.

_He looks at Akira, still as blank and calm as before.. “Is that what you thought I would say?” He pulls the trigger and watches the guard collapse into a heap._

He looks up and sees purple pinstripes, sees an arm raise and the glint of metal.

_He jams the muzzle onto a bruise on Akira’s face, smirking at the grimace that broke through his impassive face._

“Sorry, kid. Can’t leave any loose ends like you behind.”

_“Case closed. This is how your justice ends.”_

He bows his head and soon, he sees nothing but darkness.

**Author's Note:**

> We got bad end, folks. I'm sorry.
> 
> Concept and title from Shuuen no Shiori's [ Perfect Crime Love Letter ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckvtvEQBJgk).
> 
> Anyway, tell me if I miss any errors or tags or yell at me on comments or on my twitter [@hereliesandy](https://twitter.com/hereliesandy).
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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